Corvis looked at the strange creature Squib had brought back. "What's that?" he asked.

After quickly glancing back at the creature, Squib responded, "This is a creature I found in a cave not too far from your domain. These snails were eating it, so I grabbed them both at the same time. I didn't know what it was, so I brought it to you since I thought you might."

"Good job," Corvis paused to examine it, "but I'm afraid I've never seen anything like it."

"Really? Well, that's a shame. I would love to know what it is." stated Squib before retreating into his shell.

Corvis looked at the strange creature the snail had brought back. Its body had odd proportions when compared to other humanoids, and its front teeth appeared to be like a shark's, with grinding teeth in the back of the mouth. It had three fingers and a thumb, with the fingers being a bit longer than a human's and with large, sharp claws. It had no eyes, but the empty sockets were smaller than a human's. The eyes would have been smaller, but with the mummification, I can't tell how much. For the life of him, Corvis could not tell what this was. He had never seen any race that had these features. The fingers themselves were strange since most of the races on Merum had five fingers except for the nonhumanoids, with the Kor'vel being the most common, and they didn't have fingers, much less hands.

After his careful examination, Corvis could only conclude that this corpse came from an unknown race, likely of subterranean origin since he had never seen or heard of them.

After coming up short in identifying it, he examined the golden wristbands. He started with the intricate work put into it. On the wristband on his left arm, he saw what appeared to be a member of the race standing with his arms raised in front of many others. While he stood tall and proud, they were hunched and primitive. The most notable physiological between him and them was his left arm, which was smaller by several inches than his right and was much less muscular. The figure also wore what appeared to be dwarven-style armor, whereas the others wore nothing. The last feature was the pendant around his neck with three segments, like the one worn by the dead individual.

On the right was a scene of many individuals of the race carving stone and forging metal, with a massive city laying in the image's background. The exact deformed figure was there as well, this time showing the others how to work the stone and metal while showing others how to write, with what appeared to be a strange creature on his shoulder.

After having Squib flip the arms, he saw the backs of both the wrist bands continued the images on the front, but the writing was scratched into them. The text was intricate, similar to Ancient Dwarven but with enough differences to be its own language.

These people must have had some interaction with the dwarves of old. But why have I never heard of them? Are they extinct? Did they leave? Maybe I'll find my answer if Squib explores the caves, thought Corvis, his mind brimming with questions. But that's a better question for later. I have much more pressing things to worry about.

"I don't know what this is, but I want to keep the body. So please bring it to my core room; I'll keep it there until we can do anything with it. But, for now, I want to dominate these snails, move this tree to my core room, and dominate the snake."

"Where did you get a tree and a snake?"

"They were gifts from a business partner."

With a pleased yet unsure voice, Squib responded, "I see. I don't know what that is, but I'm sure it's a good thing!"

"Trust me, It's great," Corvis said, his voice holding a hint of pleasure.

"Very well, Creator, do whatever you need, and don't let me get in the way. First, I'll move the body and the tree to the core room, and then I must rest. For the first time since entering your domain, I feel exhausted."

"Thank you, Squib. You did a great job."

"You have no idea how great it is to be praised by you, Creator. I will make sure to keep meeting your expectations."

"Good," Corvis said.

Squib transported the body and the tree with the fervor of a priest, fulfilling the request of their patron deity. In no time, the corpse and tree were safely in the core room, and Corvis set about the task of dominating the snails. With a bit of mana, he turned the snails into members of his mary group of dungeon monsters. After that, Corvis ordered them to go about their normal snail activities as long as they stayed inside the dungeon.

Finishing that task, he examined the snake in the cage. It seemed to be in a state of induced torpor, barely moving inside its glass prison. After finishing his examination, he absorbed the glass container, gaining access to the substance.

Almost instantly, after the container was absorbed, the snake began to energize. Before anything else, it seemed to examine its surroundings, then it dashed for some vines, disappearing into the undergrowth. But, of course, it could hide nowhere in the dungeon without Corvis seeing it. Still, the snake would have seemed to disappear to anyone else, its black scales completely hiding it in the dark vine cluster.

With fascination, Corvis watched the snake in its hiding place before a question popped into his mind.

"Can I make another special creature?" he asked his elemental companion.

Starlid thought for a moment before it responded, "Yes, since Squib was a snail, improving him barely cost you any mana or vitae. If you wanted to, you should be able to make another special creature."

"Vitae! I completely forgot about that. How do I see how much I have?"

"Should be the same process as checking your mana, but focusing on the vitae in your body instead."

"Okay, I'll check right now," said Corvis before once again focusing his mind inward. He tried to 'grab' a strand of the green energy floating around in streams inside his body. Finally, after several tries, he latched onto it and followed it back to the source. Once he was there, he felt his vitae pool. It was noticeably low, almost dry.

Corvis realized something else. Whereas mana felt like a gaseous fluid, vitae was almost like honey, thick and solid, hard to shape, and even harder to transform.

"I suppose that will have to wait for a while since I'm low in vitae and mana. Now I just need to get the template for the snails."

"How are you planning on doing that?" asked the elemental.

"Depends. I have some questions for you."

"Okay, ask away!"

"Can I speed up the development of eggs?"

"Yes, you can use mana and vitae to speed up the development," said Starlid while rubbing its finger over its chin.

"Then I plan to have them lay eggs, and then I'm going to absorb them and make more snails like that. The only question is how fast can they grow to adulthood?"

"I don't know, but you may be able to speed that up too." speculated Starlid.

"Only one way to find out… Experimentation! Finally, something less dull than waiting and waiting and waiting again. While I'm used to the waiting, I always had other things to do. Here, all I can do is wait. I must say, it's quite draining." said Corvis.

"I can't agree more!" exclaimed the elemental "That's why I have a recommendation. You should have your creatures battle once you can create more. That way, they'll have more experience when people come."

Combat experience would improve their ability to defend us, thought Corvis. "Will it allow them to evolve?" he asked.

"Theoretically speaking, it should be possible, but it may just strengthen them."

"Either way, I think it's a good idea. Thank you." 

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After Corvis and Starlid's conversation, Corvis decided to get to work, a fervent desire to move forward as fast as possible almost overtaking him.

"Squib, I want the template for the snails. Can you go and kill them for me?" Corvis said. As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt strange. Like it wasn't him who said it but someone else, but he quickly dismissed it. He was himself after all.

Squib thought for a moment before responding, "Not to be rude, Creator, but can't you have them breed instead so that you don't have to kill them?" the scholarly snail asked. Squib felt that Corvis might be rushing things, but he didn't know why he would do that. Everything else he did seemed to have a degree of patience and planning to it.

"I thought about that and decided it would…." Corvis stopped speaking for a moment, the silence carrying through the mental connection the two had. "Your right. I just discussed that with Starlid too. Give me a moment. I'm feeling strange." Corvis said. Why did I change my mind so suddenly? Didn't I just agree with Starlid that this would be better in the long run, the dungeon core asked himself.

"Strange?! Are you okay, Creator?!"

"Yes. Well, maybe? Actually, no, I'm not. It feels like someone just yanked something out of me. It doesn't hurt, but I can feel something. Like something that was there just moments ago was forced out. I feel dazed."

"That sounds serious! Maybe Starlid knows what's wrong!" responded the snail, panic clear in his voice.

"Starlid, I feel strange," Corvis said, the mental link leaking the disconnected feeling to Starlid.

"What's that strange feeling? What's going on? Is that what your feeling?" responded the elemental quickly

"Yes," was all the addled Corvis could say.

Starlid quickly dashed to Corvis's crystal and looked inside.

The elemental was silent for a moment before it spoke.

"I have no idea what happened. Your body looks the same as it always has. Maybe it has to do with your soul being human? But why did it happen now, and so suddenly?" Starlid whispered the last part. "What were you doing when it happened?" it questioned.

After taking a moment to recover, Corvis spoke, "I was talking to Squib when I felt something overcome me. An urgency. Even though we had just talked about our plan with the snails, I felt… something. It overcame me, and I felt the need to kill the snails and expedite getting the template. But that's not like me. Cutting corners is what gets people in trouble." Corvis said to himself " So when Squib said what we had talked about, I thought about why I had changed my mind, and I felt the jerk and the empty feeling."

"Strange. Honestly, Corvis, I don't know what's happening. Maybe dungeon instincts asserting themselves, and when you thought about it, you were jerked out of it. But then why the empty feeling? Have you been feeling different?"

"Now that you mention it, I was feeling a need to rush. But I'm not sure why. It seemed normal before but now? Now it feels like it wasn't me trying to rush at all."

"You didn't seem rushed," responded Starlid.

"I wasn't acting on the feeling until then. I don't know what that was." Corvis said as he thought about when the feeling appeared. 

"We should be wary in case it happens again." Starlid said